December 05, 2013

'Ice will be on the ground,' weatherman warns Dallas Fort Worth

@gdickson

This time Wednesday, North Texas was basking in 80-degree sunshine. Today, we're bracing for an Arctic blast the likes of which we haven't seen since the February 2011 Super Bowl. The Star-Telegram's Bill Hanna talked to a meteorologist who all but assured that Friday morning commuters will face ice on the ground.

The Texas Department of Transportation is mobilizing, ready to treat bridges and other slick surfaces with sand, salt and magnesium chloride.

On a personal note, my advice to motorists is usually to use the highways, as opposed to city streets, whenever possible if you have to be out on icy streets. TxDot is pretty good about keeping the ice off the bridges, and about the biggest challenge is staying out of the way of irresponsible motorists who don't drive responsibly and spin out in front of you. But that's also a concern on city streets - and many cities aren't as quick as the state transportation department in battling the ice. Really, it depends on which city yo're driving in. Grapevine, for instance, is a relatively small city with a lot of resources, and typically keeps its streets passable pretty aggressively. Fort Worth, on the other hand, is so large and sprawling the city's street crews have little chance of keeping roads in decent shape.